Lacrimal gland involvement in sarcoidosis. The clinical features of 9 patients.

PATIENTS AND

METHODS

Ocular disease is relatively common in sarcoidosis and can be the initial clinical manifestation in some instances. In this study, we retrospectively evaluated the clinical and demographic features of 9 (1.74%) patients with lacrimal gland (LG) involvement out of 516 sarcoidosis patients who were followed up at our centre over the preceding 36-years. In addition, the characteristics of patients with LG involvement were compared to those of other cases with eye involvement and to other sarcoidosis patients.

RESULTS

In 5 subjects with LG involvement, the chest X-ray was normal. The number of stage 0 subjects among other sarcoidosis patients was significantly lower than among patients with LG involvement (p<0.001). In 2 of these cases, the diagnosis of sarcoidosis was reached by LG biopsy. The mean age of patients with LG involvement was significantly lower than that of other sarcoidosis patients (p<0.001). Also, sarcoidosis-related organ involvement--other than of the LG--was more frequent than in other sarcoidosis patients (p<0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

It should be borne in mind that LG involvement might be the initial manifestation of sarcoidosis and the chest X-ray in these patients might be completely normal.